U.S. Highway 8 runs east–west for 280 miles (451 km), mostly within
the state of Wisconsin. It connects Interstate 35 in Forest Lake,
Minnesota, to U.S. Highway 2 at Norway in the Upper Peninsula of
Michigan. Except for some short freeway segments, it is mostly undivided
surface road. It is maintained by the departments of transportation of
Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan. Part of the U.S. Highway System, it
was commissioned on November 11, 1926, running between Forest Lake and
Pembine, Wisconsin, with a planned continuation to Powers, Michigan. The
western end was extended to Minneapolis, but the terminus was later
moved back to Forest Lake. The eastern terminus was changed from Powers
to Norway. The Wisconsin Department of Transportation built a bypass
around Rhinelander in the 1990s and created a locally maintained
business loop along the old highway through the central business
district. The signage for the loop was removed in 2005. (This article
is part of a featured topic: U.S. Highways in Michigan.).
Read more:
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Featured_topics/U.S._Highways_in_Michigan>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1902:
The Discovery Expedition under Robert Falcon Scott attained a
new Farthest South point in Antarctica.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discovery_Expedition>
1903:
In one of the deadliest single-building fires in United States
history, the Iroquois Theatre fire in Chicago killed more than 600
people.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iroquois_Theatre_fire>
1954:
The Finnish National Bureau of Investigation was established to
consolidate criminal investigation and intelligence into a single
agency.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Bureau_of_Investigation_%28Finland%29>
2009:
Pro-government counter-demonstrators held rallies in several
Iranian cities in response to recent anti-government protests on the
holy day of Ashura.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/December_30,_2009_Iranian_pro-government_rallies>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
blastpipe:
(mechanical engineering, rail transport) A pipe forming part of the
exhaust system of a steam locomotive that discharges exhaust steam from
the cylinders up into the smokebox beneath the chimney in order to
increase the draught through the firebox; this speeds up the release of
smoke through the chimney.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/blastpipe>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Every kid around the world who plays soccer wants to be Pelé. I
have a great responsibility to show them not just how to be like a
soccer player, but how to be like a man.
--Pelé
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Pel%C3%A9>